While Ubisoft is known for its sprawling open worlds and has been for years, it seems the studio doesn’t always take inspiration from one of its own titles. In fact, those at Massive Entertainment working on Star Wars Outlaws took inspiration from a different game entirely.
Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima is apparently the biggest influence on Star Wars Outlaws, according to an interview with creative director Julian Gerighty (thanks, GamesRadar). “It’s super interesting because my biggest reference was Ghost of Tsushima, which is more on the Kurosawa side of inspiration than the Western, the John Ford side of the inspiration for George Lucas,” he said.
Gerighty also listed Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption as an inspiration for the game. “Red Dead Redemption is phenomenal, [because it treats] the world as a world – not as a checklist of activities that are repeated often. But I think that Ghost of Tsushima, what I loved about it was this purity of having a player fantasy and really leaning into it. This is the story, the world, the character, everything fits together with the gameplay guiding everything. That’s the fantasy of ‘you are a samurai ninja in Japan.’ That was one of the guiding lights for this.”
Star Wars Outlaws releases on the 30th of August for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.